We are the Military Wives Choirs. 
With 70 choirs, we connect nearly 1800* women in the military community and create a support network through the power of singing.

*correct as of January 2025

The Military Wives Choirs is a community of nearly 2000 women in 72 choirs across the UK and internationally. We come together to celebrate a love of singing and a communal understanding that comes from our members' shared experiences of the Armed Forces. 

'November Sunday' Single Release

The release of 'November Sunday' our musical tribute to his Majesty King Charles III. The song captures the hope and joy brought to post-war Britain on 14th November 1948 with the birth of the future King, linking to his mother Queen Elizabeth II. It's beautiful, lullaby-like tune has been recorded by 100 singers drawn from members of the Military Wives Choirs network in the UK and abroad, accompanied by The Band of the Household Cavalry.

10 years in the making

The Military Wives Choirs celebrated 10 years since the official formation of the charity. A five-date, network wide Concert Series took place in wonderful venues across the UK to look back on how far we've come, and look ahead to the future of this wonderful network of women.

Growing in strength through a pandemic

The early part of the year saw continued use of technology to bring the women of the network together through the power of singing. Despite the pandemic, the network grew throughout the lockdowns with increased membership across many choirs. Through the summer as restrictions lifted choirs were at last able to restart rehearsals in person as they looked forward to a magnificent season of wonderful music making.

'Military Wives' film hits the screens...

Inspired by the true story of the charity’s beginnings, production company 42 bring the ‘Military Wives’ film to screens nationwide in March. The Military Wives Choirs play a huge part in distributor Lionsgate’s promotion of the film, and are the featured artist, alongside the cast, on Universal Music’s soundtrack album.


Amid the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the charity has pioneered the use of virtual rehearsals to still bring choir members closer together though singing using the power of technology.



New choirs in the network...

New choirs in the network include the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Kineton and Riyadh Military Wives Choirs. Sadly, due to the drawdown of UK troops from Germany, Bielefeld, Gütersloh and Paderborn Military Wives Choirs closed  their doors. Concert highlights include ‘Remember’ – Live at Cadogan Hall, London, featuring ten Military Wives Choirs.

Marking 100 years since the end of WW1

2018 saw the centenary of the end of the First World War, which the Military Wives Choirs marked in their own unique way, through singing. 1105 singers from 69 Military Wives Choirs, including 93 from overseas choirs, were involved in making the album, conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton and recorded in seven weekends at stunning concert-hall venues across the UK, following a series of network-wide ‘Sing, Share, Support’ musical workshops led by Dominic Ellis-Peckham.



Performing across the UK

The Military Wives Choirs commissioned a number of original songs in preparation for the WWI centenary year, and premiered the first, ‘We Will Remember Them’ by Alexander L’Estrange and Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, at Cadogan Hall alongside the Band of the Household Cavalry.


In December 2017, the Military Wives Choirs performed concerts at 12 cathedrals across the United Kingdom on their ‘Home for Christmas’ Cathedral Tour, which were received to great acclaim. 

A special Christmas for us and the military community!

The Military Wives Choirs released their seasonal album ‘Home For Christmas’, reflecting what Christmas means to the military community. The album features 1006 choir members from 65 choirs.

Special commendation for contributions to Arts & Health

At the RSPH (Royal Society for Public Health) Arts and Health Awards, the Military Wives Choirs received a Special commendation for excellent contributions to arts and health practice, for Creative Arts and The Wellbeing of Armed Forces Personnel and Their Families. This award further reinforced the idea that singing in a choir is proven to increase wellbeing and improve mental and physical health. Later the same year the choirs joined Patron, Gareth Malone on his national 'Voices UK' tour.

Cyprus & Germany join the network...

The network continues to grow to over 70 choirs, now including Cyprus and Germany. The War Horse Prom in August 2014 saw a Military Wives Choirs performance. Specially formed for the occasion and directed by Gareth Malone, this group was made up of choir members from 42 different choirs across the network. 

Global expansion!

The Military Wives Choirs network expands across 46 locations throughout the UK and overseas. 

The Military Wives Choirs charity

In January 2012, choir members from Chivenor, Plymouth and Catterick came together to discuss how best to create a sustainable organisation to benefit all military wives, building on the legacy from the success of the song 'Wherever You Are'.

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    Encouraged by Gareth and actively assisted by other supporters, including SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, the Royal British Legion, Decca and 20:20 Television, the concept of a foundation to act as an umbrella organisation for all choirs was born.


    Needing a team to breathe life into the vision, a call was put out to all choirs in February 2012 and in March 2012 a group of women stepped forward to volunteer their time to found the charity we now know as the Military Wives Choirs. 


    Those women were Caroline Jopp, Nicky Clarke, Sharon Bristow, Kelly Leonard, Emma Hanlon-Penny, Vanessa Murtagh, Emma Dineen, Claire Balneaves, Sarah McCallister and Carole Gedye, supported by SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity’s Communications Director Athol Hendry. So began the hard work!


    Running alongside the business of setting up choirs the team were managing numerous high profile projects including recording three albums: 'In My Dreams', 'Stronger Together' and 'Sing', releasing a book ‘The Military Wives’, performing at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Classic Brit Awards (where we won Single of the Year!), the Festival of Remembrance and countless television appearances and local performances.


    The charity was officially incorporated on 25th July 2012 with four founding trustees: Nicky Clarke, Athol Hendry, David Ashman and Kirsty Bushell. The dedication and commitment of the co-founders and trustees was realised on 13th September 2012 when 647 women from 24 choirs came together at Wellington Barracks in London to officially launch the charity. On this same day, Gareth Malone was welcomed as the charity’s first patron.

£500,000 raised for charity

Inspired by the friendship and camaraderie in Catterick Garrison, Gareth Malone worked with women from Chivenor and Plymouth military bases to make music and film the two-part BBC documentary series 'The Choir: Military Wives'. 

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    Those choirs, galvanised by the support from each other whilst husbands and loved ones were away, enjoyed amazing success when they came together to record 'Wherever You Are' and performed at the Royal Albert Hall at the Festival of Remembrance. 


    The ladies created an unprecedented level of public empathy for women in the military community, and consequently shot to Number 1 in the UK charts and raised over £500,000 for military charities, SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity and the Royal British Legion. Inspired by Chivenor and Plymouth, other military wives began to set up choirs across the country, with Lympstone, Portsmouth, Salisbury Plain and Wattisham among the first.

Where it all began...

It all began in Catterick, where a choir for military wives and girlfriends had been set up in 2010 by Nicky Clarke and Caroline Jopp. Nicky had written to Gareth Malone about the benefits that a choir could bring to military wives during a deployment to Afghanistan.

Alongside weekly rehearsals and local performances, the Military Wives Choirs undertake special projects to bring the network together to sing, share and support. Find out more about some of our projects here.
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